When using Ctrl+F to search within a note, if the highlighted match happens to be a link (internal or external), there’s no keyboard shortcut to directly open/follow that link. This breaks keyboard-driven workflows—similar to how in Chrome you can Ctrl+G to a URL match and Ctrl+Enter to open it.
Proposed solution
Add a hotkey (e.g., Ctrl+Enter) that opens/follows the currently highlighted search match if it’s a link. This would work within the in-note find dialog (Ctrl+F) without needing to dismiss it first.
This requires multiple steps and mouse usage, defeating the purpose of keyboard navigation.
Related feature requests (optional)
“Navigate search results without using the mouse” (June 2020, Feature Archive)
“Make ‘Follow link under cursor’ hotkey work for external links” (June 2020, Feature Archive)
“Pressing Enter when text cursor is inside a link should open the link” (September 2021, Basement)
“Keyboard shortcut for going through search results” (March 2021, Help)
I cannot reproduce this problem. Can you provide more details? In sanbox vault I create internal link [[Link notes]] and then search “link” using ⌘F in live preview. Then I press Esc and ⌥Enter.
Unfortunately it seems that pressing Esc inside the search box is not part of regular commands that Obsidian provides via ⌘P. Opening internal link is provided via Follow link under cursor. Executing commands sequentially is common theme for several feature requests and there are plugins for this. You can automatically execute several commands at once using QuickAdd macros. As I said pressing Esc is not part of regular commands but you can ask this feature in https://github.com/chhoumann/quickadd/issues. QuickAdd provides many custom macros actions like copy and paste.
I tested also with [my external link](http:obsidian.md) and Esc,⌥Enter works.
Edit: pressing Esc can be added using this custom JavaScript code:
module.exports = async (params) => {
// Destructure the parameters
const { app, quickAddApi, variables } = params;
// Create a new KeyboardEvent
let event = new KeyboardEvent('keydown', {
key: 'Escape', // Key to simulate
code: 'Escape', // Physical key on the keyboard
});
window.dispatchEvent(event);
};